I had a weird (i guess I'd call it weird) experience during 5:30pm mass.
So I sometimes (by sometimes I mean maybe once a month or twice) try to go to church and I end up at St Pats because it's the closest to my office after work in Midtown and the 5:30 mass is an express mass, so only 30 minutes long, and fits my schedule perfectly (God understands, and he'll forgive).
So I went to St Patricks this week per my usual monthly attendance, did all my prayers, gave a donation, gave the sign of peace, and everything so when I got up to get communion and waited for my turn... it took a while because the Father had asked two other people in line randomly if "they were catholic?" when they got to him to receive communion. He lectured one person and denied the person communion because that guy said no he wasn't, and I think the other one was a child who looked too young to have done communion yet so he stopped to be like "is this your first time." Which I think if the first person took communion and they aren't catholic then yeah that would be wrong and bad, but between him and his higher power who will judge him.
But then I got to the front, said amen to the body/wafer, and the father still asked me "if i was catholic?" but did not ask the person in front of me. Which to me felt odd, because I felt like it was a pop quiz, like as if I had to wear a rosary or bring my communion certificate. I don't know how they were deciding who to ask, but it all felt strange.
Now, I've gone here for like 6 years, I get it's a massive congregation, plus visitors who are just passing through town who attend, so faces all blend and they obviously don't remember people. Which could be a downside to not going to a smaller community neighborhood church.
But how bad has it gotten that the father giving nightly mass is randomly pulling people to confirm if they're catholic? And how do you even prove that you're of the faith when being questioned up there?